1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an internal combustion engine with one or more combustion chambers for burning fuel in timed explosions while forming a combustion gas under pressure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internal combustion engines are combustion engines characterized by a periodic or cyclic series of individual explosions in contrast to a continuous series such as that taking place in a gas turbine, for instance. In an internal combustion engine, generally, a fuel-air mixture is burned in a cylinder and a piston mounted in this cylinder is accordingly moved, and the energy of the combustion gas is converted into mechanical energy. Known internal combustion engines of this kind are, for example, the Otto engine and the diesel engine.
Further, internal combustion engines having an expansion chamber which is separate from the combustion chamber in which the fuel is burned cyclically while forming a combustion gas and which is connected to the combustion chamber via a controllable inlet valve and in which a piston is mounted so as to be displaceable so that the energy of the combustion gas is converted into mechanical energy or work are known, for example, from EP 0 957 250 A2, AT-PS 172 823, CH-PS 202 930, FR-PS 820 750, DE-PS 4 136 223 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,720. The advantage of these internal combustion engines in particular consists in that the combustion gas formed during combustion can fully expand during the expansion cycle in the expansion chamber so that the energy of the combustion gas can be better utilized. The filling of the combustion chamber with the fuel-air mixture can be carried out at atmospheric pressure or with compression. The use of an individual compressor pump for the compression of the air in the combustion chambers is already known, e.g., from DE-PS 4 136 223 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,720.
Further, DE-OS 32 14 516 discloses an internal combustion engine in which the fuel-air mixture is burned in a first cylinder so that a piston mounted in this cylinder is moved and performs some of the mechanical work. Another portion of the mechanical work is performed by a piston which is mounted in a second cylinder in which the residual pressure of the first cylinder can expand when the piston mounted in the first cylinder has reached its bottom dead center. In addition, a third cylinder with a piston mounted therein is provided for precompression of air in the first cylinder.